Another Domestic Violence Month
has come and gone, and the public has once again been reminded of the horrific
amount of domestic violence committed by men. Remarkably, domestic violence
accounts for 20–45% of all women’s injuries seen in hospital emergency rooms, we
are told.

This is truly a staggering
statistic, and raises a crucially important question that demands an answer.
This question is not, however, “Why do men treat women with such violence,”
because like most domestic violence factoids, this one evaporates under close
scrutiny.

Is there
really any qualitative difference between saying: “The primary cause of
injury to women in the US is domestic violence,” and “We live in an epidemic
of male violence against women"?

The problem with debunking
these factoids is that no matter how often the truth squad answers the bell, the
lies continue to propagate. Fueled by a plethora of taxpayer-funded grants for
domestic violence education programs, they have a life of their own.

Variants of the factoid can be
found in numerous places. An Internet search turned up hundreds of hits,
typically on domestic violence “fact sheets” from such sources as the Ohio Dept.
of Health, the Murray, UT police department, and various battered women’s
shelters such as Safe Horizon (NY) and the Family Refuge Center (WV).

A legitimate analysis of
women’s injuries treated in hospital emergency departments comes from the CDC’s
National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) which tracks a
representative sample of hospitals nationwide. The Dept. of Justice released a
report in 1997, “Violence-Related Injuries Treated in Hospital Emergency
Departments,” based on 1994 NEISS data. According to the report, 1.4 million
people were treated “for injuries from confirmed or suspected interpersonal
violence.” The report notes in the first paragraph: “These patients represented
about 1.5% of all visits to hospital ED’s and 3.6% of the injury-related ED
visits in 1994.”

So, right off the bat, 96.4% of
injuries treated in emergency rooms are not due to assaults, domestic or
otherwise. As anyone with a modicum of common sense should realize, most
injuries come from accidents in the home and car crashes.

If in
actuality 2% of women’s injuries are due to domestic violence − not “half”
or “a third” or “most” as claimed − how is it that we accept without
question, let alone with no indignation, the horrific portrayal of men that
this lie implies, an inflation of the truth by up to a staggering 2,250%?

The percentages that follow
are, therefore, percentages of a percent (3.6%). The percentage of female
patients whose injury was caused by a spouse, ex-spouse, or boyfriend is 36.8%.
Additionally, 19.3% of female victims would not report the identity of the
assailant. If we take the worst case scenario and assume that all unreported
assailants were of the spouse/ex-spouse/boyfriend variety, the percentage rises
to 56.1%.

But these are percentages of
the small percentage (3.6%) of hospital emergency room visits that are
attributed to assaults. To find the actual percentage of women’s injuries due to
domestic violence, we need to take 56.1% of 3.6%, which is approximately 2%.

This 2% represents the maximum
percentage of women’s injury-related emergency room visits that can be
attributed to domestic violence. The comparable figure for men, by the way, is
1.4%.

Now we get to the crucially
important question raised by the factoid. If in actuality 2% of women’s injuries
are due to domestic violence − not “half” or “a third” or “most” as claimed −
how is it that we accept without question, let alone with no indignation, the
horrific portrayal of men that this lie implies, an inflation of the truth by up
to a staggering 2,250%?

It is a testament to the
successful campaign of male demonization that feminism has been waging for three
decades and counting. Victim-feminism preaches that control of women through
violence is built into the very fabric of masculinity by the “patriarchy.” But
this is the exact opposite of the truth. The “patriarchy” teaches men that it is
fundamentally wrong − and even worse, unmanly − to hit women. Men are
socialized to protect women, not to harm them. All boys are taught by their
fathers not to hit girls.

There is no more poignant
picture of the goodness of men than that of the NYC firefighter gazing up the
staircase of the World Trade Center into his imminent death. Men everywhere
routinely put themselves in harm’s way for women, seeking no recognition or
reward − while feminists denigrate men from the safety and comfort of their
offices and classrooms. From the Y chromosome to the institution of fatherhood
itself, no aspect of masculinity escapes their attack.

There is no
more poignant picture of the goodness of men than that of the NYC
firefighter gazing up the staircase of the World Trade Center into his
imminent death. Men everywhere routinely put themselves in harm’s way for
women, seeking no recognition or reward − while feminists denigrate men from
the safety and comfort of their offices and classrooms.

Is there really any qualitative
difference between saying: “The primary cause of injury to women in the US is
domestic violence,” and “We live in an epidemic of male violence against women”
(author/columnist Katha Pollitt)?

Pop quiz: How would you react
to a news story that exaggerated black-on-white violent crime by a factor of
22.5?

Trick question. Such a news
item would never get past the editor’s desk. The claim might or might not get
fact-checked, but most likely the author would be categorized as a racist, and
the story would be terminated by the Delete key.

But we not only provide forums
and sympathetic ears to these sexists, we give them literally billions of
dollars of taxpayer money (VAWA funding) to spread their twisted worldview of
male-female relations.

A second generation of women is
now being poisoned from this well. Isn’t it time we just said “No.”?

# # #

The author is a Leominster, MA resident. He is the
Spokesman for CPF/The Fatherhood Coalition and an instructor in the
Massachusetts state college system.